Livestrong Letter

Today, you may be receiving a letter from me on behalf of LIVESTRONG in support of their Community Impact Project. I am honored and humbled to have been asked to write this letter (encouraging people to vote for a cancer support program in their community).

In case you missed last week’s post, here is how the Community Impact Program works: LIVESTRONG is asking all of us to vote to determine which cancer support programs across the country LIVESTRONG will support. In other words, they don’t pick where their money goes, WE DO. How amazing is this?

In the event that you did not receive the letter, I have included an excerpt of it below.

As a Nurse and Social Worker who was diagnosed with breast cancer, I have a unique perspective from both sides of the bed.

What I know for sure is that coping with cancer is as much an emotional effort as it is a physical one. Cancer has a unique way of making a person feel isolated resulting in the potential to do lasting harm by threatening a person’s sense of wellbeing, competence, and feelings of productivity.

The Silver Lining is that professionally and now personally, I can attest to the extraordinary benefits that come from supportive services provided by health care teams, support groups, and patient-to-patient networks. They help people with cancer feel less isolated and thereby improve the quality of their lives.

I am profoundly grateful that LIVESTRONG is working to support cancer patients and survivors, specifically by funding psychosocial services. Right now, people all across the country are deciding where to fund programs that give patients and survivors the tools to handle the emotional and mental challenges that are inherent in a cancer diagnosis, treatment and recovery.

I have good days and bad, just like everyone. But thanks to the supportive services that I have received, I have been able to tap inner resources that I never knew I had.

Programs that help other survivors find that same inner strength are worth supporting. That’s why I hope you will take just a moment and vote to make vital cancer support programs available in your area.

Please take a minute and vote to bring life-changing LIVESTRONG programs to cancer patients and survivors around the country.

Comments

I allso am just a liitle over a year, actually I believe it was 1/6/2011 I have been following you for a few months I love your honesty, and sincerity which you portray, I was 63 and
really thought my number was up, but as allways I feel God does not give us more than we can handle, sure wish he could have been a little easier with the Chemo, and Radiation
but with the a lot of help from Him, and my beloved gorup of friends I am glad to still be here to express my self , and say God Bless all of you beautifull women who have gone through the same, you are Angels.

How great to be at a place now where you can reach to others, as you such amazing things to share. I'm really happy or you! It is my goal to get my health, my family, my work, stable enough to really get involved with Epilepsy Advocacy. I think this might be a really important part of the healing process. Do you agree? Regardless, I'm just so delighted to see the myriad of things you are doing to reach out to the community. You rock!

I received your Livestrong letter this morning and have spent the past hour reading your blog and alternating between laughter and tears. I will be celebrating my year anniversary (can it be called that?) with FBC next week and found so many similarities in our stories…. I just wish I had found your blog during my year of surgery, chemo, and post-chemo blues. Thank you for sharing your thoughts, struggles and humorous moments. I will pass along your blog to friends as a source for information and strength throughout their journey. Although FBC has forever changed my life, and is not something I would have asked for, it has made me cherish the small moments and look for the SL's in each day!

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Hollye’s book, The Silver Lining: A Supportive and Insightful Guide to Breast Cancer, was published by Simon & Schuster on March 2014. The book is co-authored by her dear friend, photographer Elizabeth Messina. It became a New York Times, Washington Post and LA Times bestseller.